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Tour Paradis

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Tour Paradis

Tour Paradis (pronounced [tuʁ paʁadi], Paradise Tower), also known as Tour des Finances de Liège (French pronunciation: [tuʁ de finɑ̃s ljɛʒ], Financial Tower of Liège), is a 136-metre office skyscraper located in the Guillemins area of Liège, Belgium. Designed by Jaspers-Eyers Architects, i.s.m. and Bureau d'Architecture, Greisch cvba, it was constructed from 2012 to 2014. With the tower hosting 27 floors, it is the tallest skyscraper in Wallonia and the sixth tallest in Belgium.

Following the building's inauguration in 2015, it became the workplace of more than 1,000 employees from the Belgian Federal Pensions Service (FPS), and is thus also called Le Centre de Finances. In 2022, it was announced in the media that the tower was underoccupied due to the generalization of homeworking that started during the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium.

The Paradis tower is located close to the Meuse in the Guillemins district, on the border of the Fragnée district. It fits into the axis created by the Liège-Guillemins station, Place Pierre Clerdent, the Guillemins esplanade, the La Belle Liégeoise footbridge, the La Boverie Park, the Vennes bridge and the Médiacité. It is served by several bus lines, some of which were replaced in April 2025 by a tram line. On the other side of the Meuse, it faces Nicolas Schöffer's cybernetic tower, a monumental work from 1961.

The Finance Tower in Liège would probably never have had its place in another Walloon agglomeration such as Namur, Charleroi or Mons, and for one reason: these cities have no history of vertical architecture. While Liège, since the late 1930s, has focused on vertical construction to combat the city's depopulation, exacerbated after its partial destruction during the First and Second World Wars, other Walloon cities have remained stuck in more modest building heights for several reasons: Charleroi occupies a larger area than Liège with a less pronounced topography, and Namur also has a larger area than Liège but stands out with a smaller population (around one hundred thousand inhabitants in the 21st-century compared to approximately 200,000 for Liège and Charleroi). But Liège stands out once again: steep terrain, a small area, and an urban area of over 600,000 inhabitants, making it the third largest in Belgium after Brussels and Antwerp.

The need to build upwards then became more than necessary to accommodate middle-income workers and laborers in the city center. Thus, during the 20th-century, several towers were built, such as the Belvédère residence in 1963, the Le Petit Paradis residence in 1937, the Kennedy residence in 1970, the Atlas tower in 1978 and the Simenon tower in 1963. In addition to the towers, there were also numerous residences, some reaching fifteen or even twenty stories, surrounding the main streets and avenues of the city on both sides, such as along the quays or the Avroy–Sauvenière axis.

Following the construction of the new Guillemins station, the City of Liège wanted to build a large esplanade between the train station and the Meuse River, which necessitated the demolition of the building occupied by the Finance Department. In 2007, the Buildings Agency therefore launched a competition to relocate the Finance Department employees to Liège, as the old premises also contained asbestos. Five bids were submitted: two for the Val-Benoît site, one near Angleur station, one on Rue du Plan Incliné, and one on Rue Paradis. However, the Agency failed to publish the call for tenders at the European level and therefore had to cancel the procedure.

A new call for tenders was launched in 2008, requiring candidates to obtain a planning certificate issued by the City of Liège. Of the six candidates, only two obtained this certificate: Fedimmo, which wanted to build a tower at the end of the Guillemins esplanade, and the SNCB (Belgian National Railways), which opted for a block of flats along Rue du Plan Incliné. The railway company's certificate came with a long list of impossible conditions, as it was only issued the day before the final submission deadline. The SNCB withdrew its bid, leaving the public transport authority with only one submission to review. Fedimmo was awarded the contract.

The public inquiry revealed that local residents opposed the construction of the tower. Eighty-seven objections were registered, particularly concerning the tower's size. Consequently, the Walloon Region mandated that the tower's tip be reoriented to move it further away from other buildings and that the façade visible from the train station be redesigned, accentuating the curves. These changes led to a new public inquiry and the granting of a new permit by Minister Philippe Henry in 2012. Construction began.

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